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Frank Hoen: "Patents on software are potentially very damaging to SMEs"Patents on software are potentially very damaging to SME's. SME's are responsible for a large portion of new innovative applications in the EC. But they do not have the resources to pay the gigantic fees of patent lawyers, even worse, most money is not spend on aquiring patents, but defending them in court. Companies with big pockets can always 'out sue' smaller companies, even bringing to the edge of bankruptcy.A good example is funding. European studies have shown that SME companies hardly or never receive any EC money, compared to the wealth of funding for big companies. Software patents are even worse. They cost a lot of many to apply for, and even more to defend. Without significant financial recourses, it makes no sense applying for software patents. US horror stories of companies that tried to patent 'multimedia content' while not entitled to it, could soon find its way into Europe. Europe is already lagging behind in software development. If developers now also need to worry about sofware patents, we will fallback even further compared to the US. Frank Hoen
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[ History | Laws | Examples | Against | Adapt | Agree] Last update by webmaster on Mon Jun 8 00:23:32 1998 |
